个体变量、材料变量对大学生创造性问题提出能力的影响

研究以139名大学生为被试,采用2(信息素养:高、低)×2(批判性思维倾向:强、弱)×2(信息量:高、低)×2(批判情境:有、无)四因素混合设计,考察个体变量和材料变量对创造性问题提出能力的影响。结果显示:(1)从个体变量看,批判性思维倾向在信息素养预测创造性问题提出能力时起调节作用;(2)从材料变量看,信息量高且含批判情境的材料对创造性问题提出能力有促进作用;(3)个体变量和材料变量在灵活性和独创性上存在交互作用。高信息素养或强批判性思维倾向的被试在含批判情境材料下灵活性、独创性表现更好;低信息素养或弱批判性思维倾向的学生在无批判情境材料下灵活性表现更好,在两种批判情境下独创性无显著差异。     

偶然情绪对决策的影响

情绪在决策领域中的引入曾历经过一个从刻意回避到日益重视的过程, 大量研究表明, 即使与决策本身无关的偶然情绪也会对人类的决策行为具有重要作用。本文通过梳理本领域的最新研究提出未来应注重考察：偶然情绪的影响条件、具体情绪的作用以及偶然情绪与可选项的情感属性对决策的交互影响。最后, 本文在情绪激发方法、情绪的操纵检测和决策任务实测等方面进行了总结并提出一点研究建议。     

背景图相关度与知觉流畅性对意义材料学习的影响

可取难度理论和不流畅理论认为不流畅加工可促进学习,认知负荷理论则认为知觉不流畅所激发的额外认知负荷可能阻碍学习。研究采用2（知觉流畅性：流畅,不流畅）×3（背景图相关度：相关背景图、无关背景图和空白背景）被试间实验设计,考察学习意义材料时认知负荷（通过插入的背景图控制）与知觉流畅性的相互作用。结果发现：（1）知觉流畅性的主效应显著,知觉流畅时的学习成绩显著高于知觉不流畅时的成绩;背景图相关度的主效应显著,相关背景图条件下的成绩显著高于空白背景和无关背景图。（2）知觉流畅性与背景图相关度的交互作用显著,在知觉流畅条件下,呈现相关背景图的得分显著高于空白背景和无关背景图,后二者无显著差异;知觉不流畅条件下,三者间无显著差异。研究结果表明,在知觉流畅的条件下插入相关背景图有利于意义材料的学习;该结果支持认知负荷理论。     

情境信息对模糊表情识别的影响及其作用机制

识别模糊表情对人类社会交往具有重要意义。研究者们发现, 情境信息影响模糊表情识别。基于此, 文章探究了影响模糊表情识别的五种情境信息, 包括文字描述、情绪表情、颜色背景、嗅觉信号和人格因素, 旨在揭示情境信息影响人类识别模糊表情的作用机制。未来研究可以从突出模糊表情的主体研究地位、清晰界定情境信息、探索新的研究范式以及明确影响效价转移的脑区四个方面入手, 进一步拓宽模糊表情识别研究领域。     

Modeling the Information Preferences of Parents of Children with Mental Health Problems: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

Although materials informing parents about children’s mental health (CMH) problems can improve outcomes, we know relatively little about the design factors that might influence their utilization of available resources. We used a discrete choice conjoint experiment to model the information preferences of parents seeking mental health services for 6 to 18 year olds. Parents completed 30 choice tasks presenting experimentally varied combinations of 20 four-level CMH information content, transfer process, and outcome attributes. Latent class analysis revealed three segments with different preferences. Parents in the Action segment (43%) chose materials providing step-by-step solutions to behavioral or emotional problems. They preferred weekly meetings with other parents and coaching calls from a therapist. The Information segment (41%) chose materials helping them understand rather than solve their child’s problems. These parents were more sensitive to logistical factors such as receiving information in groups, the location where information was available, the modality in which the information was presented, and the time required to obtain and use the information. The Overwhelmed segment (16%) reported more oppositional and conduct problems, felt their children’s difficulties exerted a greater adverse impact on family functioning, and reported higher personal depression scores than those in the Action or Information segments. Nonetheless, they did not choose information about, or solutions to, the problems their children presented. Simulations predicted that maximizing utilization and realizing the potential benefits of CMH information would require knowledge transfer strategies consistent with each segment’s preferences.

Intent Attributions and Aggression: A Study of Children and their Parents

This research aimed to further clarify the relationship between children's self-reported hostile intent attributions (for ambiguous instrumental or relational provocations) and peer-reported aggression (physical and relational) in 500 fourth-grade children. In addition, we examined whether parents' intent attributions might predict children's intent attributions and aggression. Both parents (mothers and fathers) in 393 families completed intent attribution questionnaires. Results showed, consistent with past research, that boys' instrumental intent attributions were related to physical aggression. Children's relational intent attributions, however, were not associated with relational aggression. Contrary to expectations, most children responded with hostile intent attributions for relational provocations. Finally, in regard to parent-child connections, maternal intent attributions correlated with children's intent attributions whereas paternal intent attributions corresponded with children's relational aggression.     

Integrating Social Information Processing and Attachment Style Research with Cognitive-behavioral Couple Therapy

The majority of the empirically validated interventions for relational distress focus primarily upon improving behavioral functioning, particularly couples’ communication patterns in conflict situations. However, although communication is highly predictive of relationship distress and later divorce, research on the effectiveness of premarital and marital interventions based on communication training has shown limited results. Therefore, although the skills-based approaches can be effective in treating relational discord and instability, they also often neglect another potentially powerful mechanism in the development of relational distress: the social cognitions and/or schemata regarding relationships that individuals carry into their marriages that stem from negative attachment experiences. Thus, this article describes how blending information gleaned from attachment style research with the body of literature addressing social information processing can enhance current methods for the treatment of relational discord. The existing research on adult romantic attachment styles is placed within a social-cognitive information processing framework and a case study demonstrating the utility of this approach with difficult couples is described.     

The path or the goal? Decision vs. information focus in biased information seeking after preliminary decisions

Research on the phenomenon of selective exposure to information demonstrates that after preliminary or final decisions, people show a preference for supporting rather than conflicting information (confirmation bias). In this article, we examine conditions that increase or decrease distortions in the search for information. We report on four experiments indicating that the confirmation bias is influenced by whether people focus on their decision or on the presented pieces of information during the information search. Focusing on the decision, for example, because a reward for a correct decision is promised or simply because participants repeatedly think of it, increases the confirmation bias. On the other hand, if participants focus on the available pieces of information because they have to invest money in order to search for information or because they have to evaluate the individual pieces of information, the confirmation bias decreases. Implications for theoretical understanding and interventions for decision-making situations are discussed.     

多参照系条件下信息获取方式对绝对方位判断的影响

把参照系整合基础上的绝对方位判断分解成路径获取过程（目标位置信息）、自身定向过程（前行方向信息）和物体定位过程（目标物体相对于参照物体的方位信息）,系统地考察了多参照系条件下信息获取方式对该任务的影响。研究以视觉形式呈现空间信息,实验1a和1b的任务中均包括上述三个过程,前者以地图的形式呈现前行方向信息、后者以语词的形式直接呈现前行方向信息;实验2有两个任务,分别独立于路径描述（定位后判断）和自身定位（定向后判断）。所有任务均为目标位置（R0o－前、R45o－左前/右前、R90o－左/右、R135o－左后/右后, R180o－后）×前行方向（北、东南西、斜方向）的组内设计、因变量为正确率和判断时间为主,共有64名大学生被试（男女各半）参与实验。发现：0o和180o位置优势效应、朝北优势效应在所有任务中都很明显;实验1和定向后判断任务中存在正方向R90o位置优势效实;定位后判断时间短于定向后判断时间,但总体所用时间上没有差异。结合信息获取的方式和可能使用到的判断策略,从绝对方位判断的认知结构上展开了讨论。     

Overcoming the winner's curse: an adaptive learning perspective

The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said to be “cursed”). Past research, using the “Acquiring a company” task has shown that people do not overcome this bias even after they receive extensive feedback. We suggest that the persistence of the winner's curse is due to a combination of two factors: variability in the environment that leads to ambiguous feedback (i.e., choices and outcomes are only partially correlated) and the tendency of decision makers to learn adaptively. We show in an experiment that by reducing the variance in the feedback, performance can be significantly improved. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.